Sunday, July 5, 2015

First stirrings?

In my series about inequality and the gloomy future that awaited us (massive joblessness, soaring inequality, even more environmental degradation) I hinted at only one solution (instituting a Universal Basic Income so people could lead contented lives regardless of their ability to perform less and less necessary work), and concluded that the only way to get there was for the ruling elite to realize that it was in their best interest too, as they could extract even more wealth from that moderately contented mass than from the current dissolving one (which forced them to sell their products and services to each other, not being any significant market outside themselves).

I tried to be realistic, and hedged my bets saying that I didn't expect such realization to come in my life, or even in my children's lives (and, being a resolute anti-determinist, that it may never happen at all), but I nevertheless wanted to keep the hope alive that it was more likely than not. Well, today I found this little article in the NYT: are billionaires really turning against inequality? which I don't believe really captures anything significant yet, but stirs my hopes that I was not so off base after all, and that things as I had envisioned may someday actually come to pass

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